91' e30 with sealed beams?

[fahr'n fahr'n fahr'n]

my November, 1989 coupe has ellips

[keefy6]

:woowoo:

any pics?

Apologies Stanley

I don't have any with the lights on if that is what you are looking for?

hope this helps, fm a few years ago

[Stanley Rockafella]

The appeal of city lights is primarily bonus awesomeness, though you could theoretically use them to park with your headlights off in a very dark area.

and if you use LED bulbs instead of incandescent, you'll use so little power even your battery will hardly know the difference

[ELVA164]

The appeal of city lights is primarily bonus awesomeness, though you could theoretically use them to park with your headlights off in a very dark area.

[Stanley Rockafella]

What is the appeal of citilights and how are they typically used? DRL or with parking lights?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=e30+city+lights

usually wired with parking lights

[Vincent Brick]

What is the appeal of citilights and how are they typically used? DRL or with parking lights?

[Stanley Rockafella]

FWIW While the Cibie's are regarded the "best quality" of the H4 conversions for their beam pattern, the Hella Plus kits seem to get pretty good reviews on amazon and Summit Racing.

Personally I'd go Cibie since they offer citilights. Not sure if you can retrofit them into the Hella's. If I could, I'd go Hella for price


EDIT

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=616916

[estoguy]

Ellips are not plug and play on sealed beam cars but Hella H4 conversions are and are a major improvement from the standard sealed beams. If you were going to go with ellips I would buy an HID retrofit kit with new projectors from one of the guys on the forum. just depends how much money you want to spend. H4's are way cheap compared to a proper HID setup

Totally agree... I have H4/H1s and they work great.

[agent]

True... but for arguably the simplest and most cost effective upgrade, an HID kit is tough to beat - especially when it carries a lifetime warranty.

Wait.... so you can get HIDs that don't look all crazy blue and modern?

Yes. A color temperature of 4300k is not blue/ricer at all.

[ELVA164]

You do not need HIDs to have adequate or above adequate lighting. The H1/H4 upgrades listed are very good, and cleaned Euro projectors with high output bulbs are nice and bright too.

[Stanley Rockafella]

Will the Cibie stuff on the site mentioned above fit into either of the E30 headlight brackerts? One would need to switch to the steel style, right, not the plastic? I'm still new to the old school headlight thing.

You need to run the sealed beam buckets found on early e30's as well as 90+ e30's. EVERYTHING is new and looks totally stock and period correct.

So while we are on the subject, is it normal for US Elipsoids to completely suck ass? No matter what I do the light output is shit, to the point I am quite uncomfortable with it. My brights, however, light up the whole world.

I had the same issue with my US ellips. I hated them too and upgraded to the smiley's and never looked back....literally

[Vincent Brick]

Bulbs are brand new Silverstars, which I have been very happy with in other applications. Lenses only have minor pitting, no more than the hi-beams which work fantastic. Oxidized reflector is a possibility as one side seems to be worse then the other.

Fixed.

Wait.... so you can get HIDs that don't look all crazy blue and modern? I would normally never consider HIDs as I feel it would look too modern for my car's vibe, and because the shitty ballasts that always die are just one more thing to go wrong. Is it actual plug and play, like no additional power wiring or anything? If so that may be something I would consider, though honestly I think I would be happy if my light output as as good as the halogen examples in that post.

[Vincent Brick]

Bulbs are brand new Silverstars, which I have been very happy with in other applications. Lenses only have minor pitting, no more than the hi-beams which work fantastic. Oxidized reflector is a possibility as one side seems to be worse then the other. I don't see myself going HID, not a fan of the look, and feel it would take away from my car's old school vibe.

[Vincent Brick]

Bulbs are brand new Silverstars, which I have been very happy with in other applications. Lenses only have minor pitting, no more than the hi-beams which work fantastic. Oxidized reflector is a possibility as one side seems to be worse then the other. I don't see myself going HID, not a fan of the look, and feel it would take away from my car's old school vibe.

[agent]

Your bulbs suck, maybe. HIDs are plug and play into your ellipsoids. Get them from Halston.

Fixed.